"OK, maybe I need to examine things closer," Jeff decided.
"On the boat, Li said we had an overwatch," Walter said. "I'd suggest if you can get your data by direct observation, that's better than trusting official numbers."
"I still have people working for me down there. But they only send me what I ask for. I need to shift what I am asking for because I was only getting a little anecdotal data about living conditions that they funneled to April." Jeff stopped and thought a bit before he commented again.
"That still doesn't say why they would be ship building as a response."
"Well for one, the really rich want to be able to leave when they wish, not be subject to government controlled shut-downs or commercial service that may end from lack of parts or money. Other than that, all I can think is that the off Earth population is probably the best performing segment of the economy right now. You have growth, and almost zero effective unemployment," Walter pointed out.
"Yes but we're small, I doubt there more than ten thousand people off Earth right now," Jeff said.
"And what is your per capita GNP?" Walter asked. "Sometimes those sort of numbers impress people in business more than totals. How many people stepped off the first few European ships to North America? And look where it is today."
"That's an interesting take on it," Jeff said.
* * *
"The owners are asking us to make recommendations for the next snowball retrieval," Deloris said. "They will launch soon, before we return. I know you are working with Jeff to make suggestions on how to select starship crews, but I think you can help the next snowball expedition without a conflict of interest. If you can't just Alice and I will make a report."
"They've already built the ship," Barak said. "I wouldn't be surprised if it is too late to gather new applicants. So all I can suggest is how to pick from the ones they have. They have a set number of crew and it's limited by life support isn't it?"
"Yes, but I think they are worried how close this voyage came to disaster," Deloris said. "So they're open to a reasonable amount of change."
"As they should be," Barak agreed. "I have limited suggestions for this crew they're about to launch, but it's too late to make big changes. That will have to wait for the next one."
"What about this expedition leaving?" Deloris insisted. "They aren't going to scrap it and wait for you to build an all new system. What would you do to reduce the chances of our sort of problems happening again, this time?"
Barak looked unhappy. He didn't really want to answer. He wasn't going to tell Deloris or anybody but Jeff his full thoughts, but he'd say a little to appear cooperative.
"I'd insist on references. Not a person's previous boss. Not their family or friends alone. This may sound odd, but I'd ask the people who worked under them. I'd ask for references of a previous girlfriend or boyfriend. I'd ask somebody who was a roomie at school, or who rented cubic to them. If a person isn't decent enough to have the people he had opportunity to treat badly speak well of the him, I wouldn't send that person off as crew in our circumstances. And I'd run veracity software on all of them while doing this."
"What if some perfectly qualified lady happened to have the proverbial boyfriend from hell, who is just waiting to give her a bad rating for perceived slights and failures?" Deloris asked, "or the opposite of course, the horrid girlfriend. What if he had a totally worthless subordinate, who hates him for actually expecting him to do his job?"
"I didn't say it was a perfect or long term solution, but they need six people urgently. I admit they may pass over deserving and qualified people using this method, but if they can't find six people who have the unreserved endorsement of most of their previous workmates and landlords I wouldn't want to go with them," Barak said, and immediately smiled. "Can you imagine the howls of indignation they would have over that down on Earth? They'd sue the company out of existence."
"Yeah, true. You think this procedure would have been sufficient to expose Captain Jaabir, Dobbs and Harold as unstable?" Deloris asked.
"Harold, I'm not certain," Barak admitted. "He wasn't deeply evil, I think even Alice would agree with that. Full of himself and petty, but he wouldn't force himself on her. We could have put up with him until we got back and then refused to ever be on a crew with him again. But he was impatient. You just can't be that way in vacuum work. I have no idea how much suit time he had, but...not enough. Maybe it would have showed in pre-hiring, maybe not. But do you have any doubt the captain and XO would have had an interesting history of personal conflict and taking liberties and shortcuts, if enough people had been interviewed?"
"No, I think both of them were messed up enough some kind of a warning flag would have been raised," Deloris admitted. "They should have never been hired having a relationship. That's going to be one of my suggestions. Not unless they had been an old married couple, together for years. I recorded, your suggestion and it will be included exactly as you said it."
"Would you ask, and if Alice doesn't mind, let me hear her ideas?" Barak asked.
"Sure. She'll probably tell you more than she's going to say out loud and publicly to the owners. You are holding back some things too. Aren't you?" Deloris asked. "I could hear it in the slow careful way you answered."
"Yes. Aren't you?" Barak asked pointedly.
Deloris just shrugged, unwilling to even nod a clear yes with the bridge being recorded. She didn't think they'd review the whole log minute by minute. But why risk it?"
Chapter 13
"Dr. Lee didn't have a sample of the Great Influenza that swept Earth, but he has dead virus vaccines that will allow us to know some variety of flu is incubating in a person. That's good enough in my book," Jeff said. "We don't really want a person bringing even one of the old strains to Home."
"Be careful if you try to acquire a sample," Walter begged him. "It makes the hair stand up on my neck just thinking about having a live sample of that evil crap here inside the habitat."
"Doc Lee probably feels the same way. He could have retained samples from a couple people we had with the disease in isolation, but rather than take samples he went to extraordinary lengths to make sure everything they touched in the isolation capsule was sterilized a couple different ways." Jeff said.
"Since this looks for the outer shell, or even fragments of it, that will work just fine," Walter assured Jeff. "It can look for other viruses if you set it up in memory. I've used public data to program it, although the full genome of recent flu doesn't seem to be available on public sources. If you touch the plate with a sample it should work right now."
"Power it up then," Jeff ordered.
Walter touched the corner square displayed on the screen of an open pad cabled to his device. It booted up and showed - ready - in about two seconds. The actual working device was a flat ceramic plate in a frame with a bar forming an arch over the plate, and a cable to the pad.
"Go ahead. Touch the ceramic anywhere," Walter invited.
Jeff touched a finger tip to the screen.
No pathogens detected – was displayed very quickly, and a square that said, - reset -.
Jeff got a test tube from his pocket with a long handled swab on it. "Doc Lee didn't waste a whole dose of vaccine on us. He touched the end with far less than a full drop."
"You'll want to clean the plate and reset before touching that to it," Walter said.
"Sure, go ahead," Jeff waited not opening the container.
Walter touched the reset command and the screen displayed: clearing.
After less than a second it showed - ready – again, and Walter waved an invitation to Jeff.
"What if I stick my hand in while it's cleaning?" Jeff asked.
"It might burn the hair off the back of your hand. That's about it," Walter explained. "I was worried about the reflection off the plate for the operator, not the person being tested. They are only exposed to it once in awhile. The operator gets the flash reflected at him dozens of times a day. But it tu
rns out the plate is extremely absorbent and of low reflectance in the infrared."
"Maybe you should turn it so the operator isn't in line of sight of the plate? Jeff asked.
Walter shook his head no. "The security person has to see the incoming person touch the plate. Or you are going to have people hiding that they have something in their hand. Or cover up that one finger has a little boot on it like people use to count money. The next generation machine will check to make sure a real live finger actually touches the screen, besides a few other improvements."
"OK," Jeff said, and uncorked the tube. He wiggled it to get the thin handle to stick out and grabbed that. He didn't swipe a long line with it, just touched the cotton tip to the center of the plate.
Influenza detected – was displayed with no delay.
"Hot damn. We're in business!" Jeff said. "We have to get Jon down here and show it to him."
"It's quite portable," Walter pointed out. "If he has a moment we could take it to him to do a demonstration. I assume security will take it to the entry lock for each shuttle arrival, and store it somewhere secure between times."
"You're right," Jeff agreed. "That's even more impressive. I'll call him right now."
* * *
Jeff had dinner with April to give her the good news about the virus sensor early. He expected Jon to make an announcement sometime in the evening. Over supper he related Dave's story of all the people seeking vessels or components from his shop.
"All these people wanting to build lift capacity make me nervous," Jeff said. "I was thinking about making another Earth landing shuttle."
"And you're thinking about canceling it now, because it will be excess capacity?" April asked.
"No! Just the opposite. I figure if they are worried that commercial lifters may be grounded then I need to do the same as them, and have my own. One shuttle with as small a load as the Chariot can carry isn't enough to start to supply Home. If supply drops off again you couldn't blame the Earthies for supplying their own people first. Nobody in orbit owns a ground landing shuttle but us. They're all orbit to orbit and lunar landers," Jeff worried.
"You could see if Ernie still has sufficient liquid funds to be a partner," April suggested.
"If I have to. I really like owning the Chariot outright," Jeff said.
"You have the plans for Dionysus' Chariot. Do you want to build a second in series?" April asked. "I know you can make some of the big pieces cheaper now with lunar materials."
"No, having twice the Chariot's capacity still wouldn't get us out of trouble if we lose much commercial lift service. I can't make a water landing shuttle that will handle the sort of loads we need. I talked about it with Dave, and it might be physically possible, but not at any price we can handle. We need a shuttle that will land on a runway, and take off that way too, lifting six to eight times as much as Dionysus' Chariot. Right now that's the only configuration we can build that lifts a lot, cheaply."
"You need a friendly government to use that," April reminded him.
'Yes, we're pretty sure of Tonga. I've spoken with your father and he's talking to Mitsubishi. The Japanese government didn't want to have direct landings right after the war with North America, thus supplying us through Tonga, but things may have changed enough that they'll allow it now. Especially if the case is presented to them by Mitsubishi instead of us directly. I think that if conditions get bad on Earth it may work in their favor to open other landing rights to us. The specialty items we make may be easier to get directly than through a distribution network in chaos."
"I thought things were getting better," April said. "But you expect them to deteriorate?"
"Walter has been convincing me from his experiences, that the improvements may be temporary, and in some cases outright lies. I'm shifting some of our peoples' intelligence gathering. Before they sort of reported what they just incidentally observed to you for your economics education. Now, it's shifting to be a primary objective. There's something else I've noticed," Jeff said, in an odd voice.
"What's that?" April prompted him.
"Nobody has tried to sneak a snoop robot or drone on Home in months. Not against us or anybody I know. I'm pretty sure they haven't got so good we just haven't found them. Jon actually has been looking harder, because he was afraid of that possibility. Either they don't have the assets to spare to continue probing us, they may have lost key people to the flu, or they have so much on their plate down there they don't want to provoke an incident with us they'd have to deal with," Jeff guessed.
"We're still getting bots from Japan?" April asked him.
"Some, but they haven't brought out a new model since before the flu."
"I can help," April offered. "You want to know if the economic numbers are true?"
"Yes, what do you intend?" Jeff asked, interested.
"There's tons of commercial satellite data, back to before the war. I'll count trucks on the road and at loading docks, count vessels on the ocean. Maybe even count planes putting in at freight terminals. We should be able to tell something about the level of commerce and recovery from the traffic. And I'll try to see if crops were harvested or left in the field. One must look different from the other."
"That's a huge job," Jeff warned her.
"Do you still have that company in Pakistan that did data processing for you?" April asked. "I could use them. Or did the flu mess them up so bad they aren't in business?"
"Actually, they've sent a couple messages assuring me they are functioning just fine and could not only handle some work, but are eager for it. But do you want them to have the same information as us, if it reveals deception?" Jeff asked.
"We won't do any studies in Pakistan," April said. "Nothing that would embarrass them to reveal to us, or be a touchy thing for them to possess and hide from their own government. They're an asset. If they get some private benefit from the job I can't see it being massively disruptive, can you? I mean, I don't think they're going to use it to bring down the USNA government, or whatever passes for that in China right now."
"Probably not. I'll send the contact information for them," Jeff agreed.
Their comms both beeped.
Home Net – System transmission to ALL.
Notice from Home Security – Jon Davis
The imposition of a quarantine period for arrivals to Home is ended immediately. We now have the ability to quickly test arrivals for incubating disease and will only disrupt the schedule of those testing positive.
At present this test only identifies carriers of influenza, which has been our primary concern. In the future other pathogens will be added to our detection abilities.
Thank you for your patience and the authorization given our department to act on these matters. We are very pleased to end the disruption to commerce and recreation.
Jon Davis – Head, Home Security
"Well, that will make a lot of people happy," April said.
"It makes me happy, and it's going to be an immediate source of income for us," Jeff added. "Other habitats and some of the shipping companies will buy our early detection machine. I'm sure there is an Earth market, but we'll have to see how big."
* * *
"That's marvelous. It sounds like the bits will be a real boost to your local business," Myat said to Huian. "I very much approve of using our gold that way. There are others here, we have spoken with privately, and some of them are attracted to the idea of sending their gold off world. May we send you more if our contacts and customers direct us to do so?"
"Yes, I'm sure the banks here can handle it for me successfully," Huian assured her. "I realize the last shipment was sent in a bit of a rush, and done quietly to enhance security. But could you possibly send any future shipments in my name directly to Irwin Hall at the Private Bank of Home? They brought the last bunch to my residence, where we have no suitable storage. I had to get a courier and deliver it to the bank right away. They have a vault to hold it awaiting taking it to the moon.
It's much better to direct it there."
Myat asked a question that confused Huian. "No dear, there aren't any storage fees. It's money. At least it is here. You'll make some interest on it. We'll pay you, not the reverse. I don't know how much yet but they aren't just storing it. A portion is being loaned to production of things, not just speculation. The amount coined to small denominations, and these bits, will generate seigniorage for the banks.
"Now, as far as our funds with you. If we get a share of profits in the fullness of time just add them to our account. I don't anticipate any sudden need for withdrawals like when we left Earth. Our situation is much more stable now. Indeed I anticipate sending you small amounts from time to time."
When she finished the call Huian felt it went very well.
* * *
"Wow, we have the next three shuttles coming into Home sold out," Jon said.
"Pent up demand," said Ernesto Muños. "I'd have been surprised at anything else. But tell me. Are the return seats all sold out?"
"Yes, they are," Jon said. He played with the screen a little more. "I asked old man Larkin if the same people coming in had reservations going out. He told me to mind my own business if it wasn't a matter of public safety."
"Tell him you don't need names. Nothing that invades privacy. You just want the pattern of the reservations. Do they tend to be round-trips? Have a little tact," Muños counseled.
"There...I even said please." Jon waited a few minutes and grunted. "Well, you're right, groveling got information. There are only four round trips bought," Jon muttered.
"That isn't groveling Jon. It's hard to grovel in text at all. You need voice, and I'm not sure you'd know how anyway. What's with you? Are you angry about something?"
"Yes, no...I don't know," Jon admitted.
"Well that covers all the bases," Muños said.
They Said It Would Be Easy (April Book 7) Page 18